Peter Oakley

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Oakley: his cookalongs were more popular than Gordon Ramsay’sNational Pictures

Last updated at 12:00AM, April 7 2014

Octogenarian who became a YouTube sensation with his upbeat, warm and eccentric observations of modern life’s adversities

Under the name “geriatric1927”, Peter Oakley’s first YouTube video entitled “Geriatric gripes and grumbles” — and explaining “I really am as old as I look” — was uploaded on August 5, 2006. It has since reaped more than 2.9 million views and more than 10,000 comments.

The pensioner from Bakewell went on to post 434 videos from microwaveable readymeal “cookalongs” in his kitchen — that scored more viewers than a similar Gordon Ramsay clip — to his thoughts on the Olympics. With 44,000-plus subscribers, he became a kind of surrogate grandfather to the online community. In his very first year of operation, his “vlogs”